drudge report hits per day

• Latest Latest
• The West The West
• Sports Sports
• Opinion Opinion
• Magazine Magazine

Did Drudge Report and Fox News turn blue in 2020?

Once seen as staunchly republican, the news site and cable news network raised eyebrows in their coverage of trump.

By Jennifer Graham

Once a reliable place to find unflattering photos of Hillary Clinton, the news aggregator Drudge Report mocked both President Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani in recent weeks.

Meanwhile Fox News, long seen as a booster of conservatism, has become a target of the president, who cheers every decline in ratings and is rumored to be considering starting a media company that would compete with Fox.

Have Drudge and Fox, like voters in Georgia, turned blue, or at least faint purple?

If so, it would be a remarkable change, given that a subset of Americans called “ Fox News Republicans ” have been the president’s most loyal supporters. And as far back as 2006, the website founded by Matt Drudge has been seen as powerhouse of Republican support, with ABC News reporting that year that “Drudge Report sets the tone for national political coverage.”

It’s clear that Drudge Report is no longer a booster of Trump, who has called the website “fake news” this year although it has been credited with helping him get elected in 2016.

It’s not clear, however, if Matt Drudge is still the owner, or involved on a daily basis. There’s been speculation the site has been sold, although others say Drudge still owns and manages the site he founded in 1995.

As for Fox, the network recently changed its slogan to “ Standing Up for What’s Right ,” which some people saw as a dig at Trump, and by extension, his loyal supporters. Trump voters also took issue with the network calling states for Biden on election night.

Given their other content, it’s unlikely that Drudge Report and Fox have radically shifted to the left. As they say in medical school, “ when you hear hoofs, think horse, not zebra ,” meaning the simplest explanation is more likely than the more uncommon one.

As such, it’s more probable that the news outlets soured on Trump — as some other prominent Republicans did — not on conservatism in general.

But the perception that Drudge Report and Fox News have abandoned their base is getting oxygen from people who want to compete with them.

Drudge Report, a former Trump ally, is ready to move on. The site is filled with headlines that describe the outgoing president as "bitter" and "not a good loser.'" https://t.co/VSoJyMzWgN pic.twitter.com/SKBfNlq43H — Nieman Lab (@NiemanLab) November 12, 2020

Man of the Left?

Earlier this year, Ryan McMaken, writing on the blog of the Mises Institute , said Drudge Report has lost its edge, becoming instead a purveyor of predictable fare, spiced with “crisis porn.”

“It is now, for all practical purposes, a sister site to CNN.com or The Atlantic, ” McMaken wrote.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson went farther, in July calling Drudge “a man of the progressive left.”

“At times, his site is indistinguishable from The Daily Beast or any other woke propaganda outlet posing as a news company,” Carlson told Matthew Lysiak, the author of a biography on Drudge, “ The Drudge Revolution ,” released this year.

Lysiak did not interview the subject of his book. Drudge is famously reclusive and rarely grants interviews. But he did speak briefly to Florida journalist Bob Norman after he showed up unannounced at Drudge’s home.

As Norman recounted in an article in Columbia Journalism Review, he never saw Drudge when he was at the house, but called him later and told him he wanted to talk with him about Trump. “You and everybody else,” Drudge replied. When Norman said Drudge Report was supportive of Trump in 2016, Drudge said, “That was three years ago.”

“That response seemed rather telling, a clear distancing from the president. But Drudge wouldn’t go further,” Norman wrote.

In addition to Drudge Report’s increasingly frequent skewering of Trump, others have noticed the website has taken the pandemic seriously, unlike some of Trump’s supporters.

As one person wrote on Twitter, “Fox may have shifted to the center since 2016. Drudge Report was the biggest game changer. DR single-handedly made me deathly afraid of COVID-19 between February and May of this year.”

Fox News, meanwhile, has regularly enraged the president with reporting that the president believes is biased against him. At one point, he said he was the “golden goose” responsible for the network’s historic ratings. (Fox surpassed the legacy networks in primetime for the third quarter of 2020, and in that same quarter, four of the five most-watched cable news shows belonged to Fox.)

And his anger was renewed on election night after Fox News was the first network to project that eventual President-elect Joe Biden would win Arizona.

According to the political website The Hill , the Trump campaign urged people to call Fox to ask them to withdraw the call. “The campaign also sent out talking points attacking the head of the Fox News decision desk and highlighting his past contributions to Democratic candidates,” Brett Samuels wrote for The Hill.

The president has urged his supporters to abandon Fox for other conservative outlets such as Newmax, and Mike Allen at Axios has reported that Trump wants to start a digital media company to compete with Fox. According to Allen, an unidentified source said, “He plans to wreck Fox. No doubt about it.”

To do so, however, would require convincing Trump supporters to abandon their principle source of news.

According to an October report from the Public Religion Research Institute, about 40% of Republicans say they trust Fox News more than any other news source, comprising what the institute’s founder and CEO Robert P. Jones called “a party within a party.”

And those “Fox New Republicans” were largely supportive of the president.

Nearly all Republicans who report trusting most in Fox News for television news approved of the job Trump is doing in office, including 82% who strongly approve, according to the PRRI survey. (Among all other Republicans, 78% approved of the president and 42% strongly approved.)

Drudge alternative

If Trump decides to compete with what he perceives as anti-Trump media, he’ll have company. Conservative podcaster Dan Bongino is offering Trump supporters an alternative to Drudge Report in his Bongino Report , launched last year.

A news aggregator like Drudge Report, the site recently had headlines including “Biden Campaign Manager Called for Mandatory Gun Seizures” and “RINO Mitt Romney Scolds Trump for Not Accepting Election Irregularities Without Investigation.”

In announcing the launch, Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and police officer, said on Twitter, “Drudge has abandoned you. I NEVER will.”

Bongino is regularly among the top 10 performing Facebook posts on a given day, according to the Twitter account that tracks them. He’s also a regular commentator on Fox News, which shows the challenge that Trump and his supporters face if they try to extract themselves from Fox and Drudge Report, given their longtime entwinement. When Trump criticizes Fox, for example, he’s criticizing the employer of his ally Sean Hannity, a top-performing Fox host.

But a Biden presidency may be what reunites the team. Recently, Drudge Report has been publishing flattering photos of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. If the past predicts the future, that will change.

And a recent article by Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr in The Washington Post suggests that Fox News will soon be making Trump happy again when it casts a critical eye on the Biden administration.

“Fox thrives when it is in the opposition because they have a real-time bad guy to beat up on,” former CNN President Jonathan Klein said in the Post. “A Biden win would be great for Fox’s business.”

• April 6, 2024 | MBFC’s Weekly Media Literacy Quiz Covering the Week of Mar 31st – Apr 6th
• April 6, 2024 | The Latest Fact Checks curated by Media Bias Fact Check 04/06/2024 (Weekend Edition)
• April 6, 2024 | Daily Source Bias Check: Center for a New American Security
• April 5, 2024 | The Latest Fact Checks curated by Media Bias Fact Check 04/05/2024
• April 5, 2024 | Daily Source Bias Check: Vaccines and Christianity

Drudge Report – Bias and Credibility

Right-center bias.

These media sources are slightly to moderately conservative in bias. They often publish factual information that utilizes loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by using appeal to emotion or stereotypes) to favor conservative causes. These sources are generally trustworthy for information but may require further investigation.  See all Right-Center sources.

• Overall, we rate the Drudge Report Right-Center Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that more frequently favor the right. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to occasionally using poor sources with failed fact checks.

Detailed Report

Bias Rating: RIGHT-CENTER Factual Reporting: MIXED Country: USA Press Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE Media Type: Website Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY

Founded in 1995 as one of the first independent web-only news sources, The Drudge Report is a politically conservative American news aggregation website run by Matt Drudge. The site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States and international media about politics, entertainment, and current events; it also has links to many columnists. Occasionally, Drudge authors new stories himself, based on tips.  The Drudge Report focuses on sensationalized stories with a right-wing bias. Matt Drudge and Charles Hunt edit the website .

In 2016, Matt Drudge was a strong supporter of Donald Trump; however, in 2018, Drudge began distancing himself from Trump and openly criticized  him , primarily for Trump’s broken promises on the border wall and immigration.

Due to this change in position, some strong Trump supporters have labeled The Drudge Report as the progressive left. For example, Conservative/Libertarian Trump supporter Tucker Carlson stated that  Matt Drudge is “firmly a man of the progressive left,” with the conservative Fox News host comparing the Drudge Report founder to The Daily Beast or “any other woke propaganda outlet posing as a news company.”

Read our profile on the United States government and media.

Funded by / Analysis

The Drudge Report is owned by Matt Drudge and is funded through online advertising.

Analysis / Bias

In review, the Drudge Report typically provides hyperlinks to external news sources, in which Matt Drudge writes the lead in headlines. In the past, almost all news stories favored the right and linked to right-leaning sources. Drudge is also frequently linked to conspiracy sources such as ZeroHedge and Infowars and Questionable sources, with very poor fact-check records, such as Breitbart , WND , and the Gateway Pundit .

Today, the Drudge Report typically links to more credible, lower-biased sources such as the Associated Press , Reuters , The Atlantic , and Fox News . However, there are still times when they publish the Questionable Breitbart as well as the Daily Mail .

Drudge Report also publishes columns from a wide range of journalists such as Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Ben Shapiro on the right and Paul Krugman and Maggie Haberman on the left. For the most part, the majority are right-leaning columnists, with many who have poor track records with fact-checkers.

Although the Drudge Report no longer supports Donald Trump, they clearly favor the right based on story selection and the right-leaning columnists that dominate the website. A review of 50 articles revealed that 16 favored the right and 9 favored the left, with the rest falling into a non-political category. In general, the Drudge Report has moderated toward a more Right-Center stance since the last review.

Finally, in the past, the Drudge Report has also promoted numerous debunked conspiracy theories such as The President Obama Birther conspiracy and that Undocumented children are violent criminals . A review of articles over the last two years indicates they have not failed a fact check and do not regularly publish conspiratorial content.

Failed Fact Checks (None recently)

• “Reporters rehearse questions with White House press (secretary).” – PANTS ON FIRE
• “Says Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald “Sterling is a Democrat.” – PANTS ON FIRE
• A photograph shows children holding guns on the US-Mexico border. – FALSE
• Is President Obama’s trip to India going to cost $200 million per day? – FALSE
• BREAKING: Illegal Muslim From Iran Arrested For Starting California Wildfire – PANTS ON FIRE

Overall, we rate the Drudge Report Right-Center Biased based on story selection and editorial positions that more frequently favor the right. We also rate them Mixed for factual reporting due to occasionally using poor sources with failed fact checks. (7/19/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 9/09/2022)

Source: https://www.drudgereport.com/

• Left-Center
• Least Biased
• Right-Center

Last Updated on May 24, 2023 by Media Bias Fact Check

Do you appreciate our work? Please consider one of the following ways to sustain us.

MBFC Ad-Free 

MBFC Donation

Left vs. Right Bias: How we rate the bias of media sources

Explore Similar Sources:

• Drudge Retort – Bias and Credibility
• Black Agenda Report – Bias and Credibility
• Boy Genius Report (BGR) – Bias and Credibility
• Borowitz Report – Bias and Credibility
• Bleacher Report – Bias and Credibility

Support our mission - ad-free browsing & exclusive content. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.

New membership plans available.

Every contribution counts

Never see this message again

Trump’s Right: Drudge Report’s Audience Is Down Nearly 40% From Last Year

Drudge Report slid 38% year over year in unique visitors from July of last year to July 2020

President Donald Trump slammed Matt Drudge and his Drudge Report Sunday and Monday, and while it’s subjective to argue whether the right-leaning news aggregator has moved away from positive Trump stories, one thing is true: Drudge’s readership is down a whopping 38% from last year.

According to Comscore data, the Drudge Report had 1.488 million unique visitors in July 2020 — the most recent month for which data is available. That’s down 38.0% from July 2019, when the site boasted 2.399 million unique visitors.

Remarking on a post that said the Drudge Report had seen a “historic crash,” the president  wrote  on Twitter Sunday, “ Such an honor!  Drudge  is down 40% plus since he became Fake News. Most importantly, he’s bleeding profusely, and is no longer “hot”. But others are! Lost ALL Trumpers.”

Trump  continued his attacks on Monday: “ Our people have all left  Drudge . He is a confused MESS, has no clue what happened. Down 51%.  @DRUDGE  They like REVOLVER and others!” It was not immediately clear what that 51% figure referenced.

Drudge did not immediately return a request for comment.

According to Similarweb , the Drudge Report had 63.22 million visits, or page views, in August 2020 — a slight drop of 3.26% from the previous month. But the site boasted as many as 96 million visits in July 2019.

Drudge — whose claim to fame is that he aggregates news from around the internet and lists headlines and links in a simple format on his website, often deciding the talking points of the day — has faced steady criticism  not only from Trump , but from other conservatives for not being friendly enough to Trump particularly in the lead-up to the 2020 election with headlines like Monday’s “Trump Could Be on Trial Sooner Than Think…”

Notably, Fox News alum Dan Bongino launched his own site late last year to highlight news from conservative outlets as a competitor to the Drudge Report.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Drudge Report Traffic Down 45% From Last Year

The Drudge Report’s traffic fell 45% year-over-year in September, extending its nine-month losing streak in 2020, according to Comscore data.

The data shows that visits to the conservative news aggregator was down, but one conservative figurehead who did not see declines is Dan Bongino, a Fox News contributor who launched his own aggregator site last year to compete with Drudge’s.

Comscore did not provide full Bongino Report or Drudge Report numbers, but Bongino.com, which features original pieces instead of aggregated ones, saw a 780% increase over last September.

Also Read: Trump's Right: Drudge Report's Audience Is Down Nearly 40% From Last Year

In September 2020, Bongino.com brought in 2.593 million unique visitors, a gigantic jump from the 295,000 it saw in September 2019.

President Donald Trump has been ridiculing Drudge for his declining audience numbers for months after taking the position that the conservative tastemaker has begun curating the homepage with what he feels is an anti-Trump slant. The president has also leveled criticism at Fox News when he feels the network isn’t supportive enough of him, but that company’s digital offering, FoxNews.com, saw heavy traffic in September 2020.

Overall, FoxNews.com brought in 104.089 million unique visitors, a 9% increase over September 2019. CNN.com, however, brought in more traffic than any other conservative or mainstream media site: 144.471 million unique visitors, an 11% increase over last September.

The data was obtained by The Righting , a site that monitors trends in right-wing news and opinion sites.

Read original story Drudge Report Traffic Down 45% From Last Year At TheWrap

Recommended Stories

Andrew siciliano, face of 'red zone channel,' and others out at nfl network, per report.

NFL Network is laying off four of its most popular and talented on-air personalities.

Stephen Strasburg retiring after years of injury struggles, and months-long standoff with Nationals

Stephen Strasburg made eight starts after signing a $245 million contract in 2019.

Why gas prices in California ‘have gone ballistic'

California's gas prices have surged more than the rest of the nation as the state grapples with less output from its refineries.

Rashee Rice didn't learn from the past, maybe other NFL players will learn from Rice

Rashee Rice should have taken a lesson from recent history.

NFL mock draft: Patriots trade out of No. 3 but still get their QB, and what do Bills do after Stefon Diggs trade?

As we turn toward the draft, here's Charles McDonald and Nate Tice's latest lively mock.

Vontae Davis, former NFL star, found dead in Miami home at age 35

Davis published a children's book about his life in 2019

Warriors take Rockets' Tari Eason to task for wearing taunting T-shirt on bench

The Warriors blew out the Rockets 133-110.

Royals owner's wife warns team could move to Kansas after ballpark funding proposal voted down

Marny Sherman, the wife of Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman, warned that Missouri could lose both the Royals and Kansas City Chiefs after a stadium funding proposal was voted down.

US economy has Wall Street 'borderline speechless' after blowout March jobs report

The March jobs report was the latest piece of economic data to surprise Wall Street analysts and send stocks rallying.

Welcome to MLB: Padres rookie strikes out on pitch to helmet, which ump got wrong

Graham Pauley has had better at-bats.

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Drudge Report Looks Old-School, But Its Ad Targeting Is State-of-the-Art

Drudge is like a 1995 Ford Escort with a 500-horsepower advertising engine under the hood.

Every major website tracks its users as they make their way through the site, but in an analysis completed by the privacy company, Abine, one major website stands out for the number and variety of tracking methods used on its site: The Drudge Report .

That's a surprising finding given that the site's appearance hasn't changed in a decade. In a recent salutary profile, The New York Times' David Carr noted the site had "no video, no search optimization, no slide shows, and a design that is right out of a mid-'90s manual on HTML ." But don't be fooled by Drudge's surface simplicity: When you the visit, up to 27 different tracking technologies from 18 separate companies are deployed. Drudge is like a 1995 Ford Escort with a 500-horsepower advertising engine under the hood.

Drudge uses twice the number of advertising tools as the average site, according to Abine . And Drudge stands out even among news sites, which Abine CTO Andrew Sudbury said deploy "a high number of tracking technologies."

Abine created the browser add-on, Do Not Track Plus , which allows users to see the hidden communications between their browsers and data-tracking servers across the web. It provides you with X-ray vision into the advertising ecosystem that's monetizing your visit to a website.

While I'm illustrating the problems of ad tracking with the Drudge Report here, let me be clear that what they are doing is only different in degree, not in kind, from what nearly all the national news sites you visit are doing. I tested other prominent websites using the same methodology we used to look at Drudge. I found The New York Times deployed 10 tracking tools from 7 different companies and The Huffington Post used 19 trackers from 10 companies. The lesson from Drudge is that you can't judge a site's business-side sophistication by the way that it looks on the web.

The Drudge Report's ads are sold by a long-time Internet advertising company called Intermarkets , which was founded in 1997. The site also sells advertising for MichelleMalkin.com, AnnCoulter.com, and the Media Research Center. Even among these sites, there was wide variation in their use of data tracking tools. MichelleMalkin.com only used 17 and AnnCoulter.com just 10. Intermarkets chief marketing officer, Michael Loy, contacted on Friday, said he was not familiar with Abine's tool, and that his company would not be able to provide a comment before publication of this story. Tracking tools fall into several categories, as discussed in my article last week on the 105 companies tracking me on the web. In some cases, the tracking code is used to serve an ad. In others, it verifies the ad was sold. Still others measure the audience and provide data for ad targeting. And then there are scores of middlemen that gather data and sell ads all over the web, knitting together the various other players.

Reverse engineering exactly what's happening with even a single website's advertising machinery is harder than it sounds. There are an order of magnitude more characters of code on Drudge dedicated to advertising and tracking than there are words for humans on the page, Sudbury told me.

"When you go to Drudge Report, you load a whole bunch of their code. It's 160,000 characters of Javascript that you're loading," Sudbury told me. "It reads and sets all kinds of cookies based on what you know and they already know about you."

Before you know it, 18 companies have been daisychained in. And all this can happen between when you hit enter on Drudge and when the ads show up.

Why are so many tracking tools deployed on the site? It's actually a kind of emergent effect. Basically, Drudge can sell an advertising space to some advertising company, who can, in turn, resell that space to someone else, who again, can resell that space. At each step, the data about who you are has to be passed on down the line, so that prospective advertisers can decide how much they'd like to pay to show you an ad. Before you know it, 18 companies have been daisychained in. And all this can happen between when you hit enter on Drudge and when the ads show up.

We created a document of all the code that is called when your browser heads to DrudgeReport.com. We found tracking technologies from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. In addition, we found several complex scripts from The Rubicon Project , a real-time advertising sales platform. We also discovered tracking by audience research firms like Quantcast, the plain vanilla ad server AdTech , and advertising marketplaces like OpenX . Every niche in the online ad ecosystem seemed to be filled.

Intermarkets has a commendably simple and readable privacy policy in which it discloses that it might not only collect its own data on your visits, but will connect its information with other third-party sources. Here is the most relevant snippet:

We may augment our click stream data with non-personally-identifiable behavioral and demographic data from third party Services Providers (defined below) to target and serve some of the advertisements you see on the pages of our Site and those of our Portfolio publishers. This anonymous data may include such things as zip code, age, gender, and income range...

As I noted in a previous article, the online advertising world has a very particular definition of anonymity. What they mean is not that they don't know anything about you. In fact, they know, within reasonable bounds: your probable income, roughly where you live, your gender, your ethnicity, and your age. They pair this data with what you read, so they can sell advertising segments like: roughly 40 year old white men who are interested in gun rights. You are "anonymous" but anonymous in name only; all those tracking companies know whom they are dealing with, even if they can't put a face to the data.

There is another key provision in Intermarkets' privacy policy. Namely, that they do not control what third-parties do with the data they collect on the Drudge Report. "The use and collection of information by our third-party advertising Service Providers is governed by the individual privacy policies of those providers," the policy reads. That means that to truly understand what might happen with the data that your visits to Drudge Report generate, you'd have to read 18 different privacy policies . In addition, as the policy itself notes, not all of Drudge's third-party partners are members of the Network Advertising Initiative, which is the main self-regulatory body for ad firms.

While Drudge Report itself may not do anything strange with your data, some other company collecting data could sell it to another business that does, in fact, do something weird. That's one reason that the bare fact of data collection is problematic, especially as long as third-parties are able to set privacy policies that users will never see. Any sort of consumer feedback breaks down when there is this little transparency.

While there are some obvious differences, the structure of the problem is similar to what we see in the ethical debates about companies' supply chains. Apple, for example, relies on Chinese suppliers, who themselves rely on other suppliers, who themselves rely on even more suppliers. This has the effect of distancing Apple from the primary responsibility for the health and safety of the workers who build their products. In the online advertising ecosystem, Drudge passes responsibility down the daisychain, too. Among the uses of user data that we do know about, Drudge's commercial partner, Intermarkets, is particularly fascinating because they sell ads primarily on conservative websites. That makes them a particularly good place for Republican campaigns. Intermarkets specifically sells campaign strategy services, including database building. As they explain :

We'll target your specific audience in your district or state based upon demographic, psychographic, and behavioral parameters, using our secure platform, reaching more than 185 million unique U.S. visitors, in a single access point, with unified reporting and campaign management for your convenience.

During the recent health care debate, Intermarkets helped the Senate Conservatives Fund target likely fundraisers and activists right after the House voted to approve the bill.

The boundary between business and politics, between the commercial and civic spheres, is porous.

"SCF launched an ad campaign urging the immediate repeal of the Government's takeover of health care. Intermarkets' expert knowledge about conservative websites ensured that SCF was getting their message in front of the right audience, before anyone else had a chance to react," a case study on Intermarkets reads . "The results of this campaign were astounding. SCF tripled their email list in one week, and saw a nearly 200% net ROI. While results like this are not common, this campaign does demonstrate that working with Intermarkets provides powerful tools to mobilize American citizens and identify likely supporters." The point of laying all this out is that the boundary between business and politics, between the commercial and civic spheres, is porous. The data that can be used to sell you a car can also be used to sell you a candidate. And while some may not worry about targeted advertising for cars, which allows each and every person to remain in his individual filter bubble, it strikes me as something different when all political advertising becomes targeted, too.

Ei Pariser argued in his touchstone book, The Filter Bubble , that the public could be made irrelevant by the increasing personalization of the web. What does it mean to have a public discourse when every demographic and psychographic slice of the country is receiving different information?

The rise of ideologically-aligned media helped people sort themselves into different knowledge communities. Sophisticated targeting tools will now reinforce those initial positions, automatically providing ads that have been designed to keep people within the boundaries of the things they once read and thoughts they once had.

More From The Atlantic

You're Fat and You Know It: Why Government Anti-Obesity Efforts Fail

The Rich Get Richer: 2010 Was a Very Good Year to Be in the 1%

Innovation Is a Remix: What Star Wars Teaches Us About Creativity

Recommended Stories

Andrew siciliano, face of 'red zone channel,' and others out at nfl network, per report.

NFL Network is laying off four of its most popular and talented on-air personalities.

Stephen Strasburg retiring after years of injury struggles, and months-long standoff with Nationals

Stephen Strasburg made eight starts after signing a $245 million contract in 2019.

Why gas prices in California ‘have gone ballistic'

California's gas prices have surged more than the rest of the nation as the state grapples with less output from its refineries.

Rashee Rice didn't learn from the past, maybe other NFL players will learn from Rice

Rashee Rice should have taken a lesson from recent history.

NFL mock draft: Patriots trade out of No. 3 but still get their QB, and what do Bills do after Stefon Diggs trade?

As we turn toward the draft, here's Charles McDonald and Nate Tice's latest lively mock.

Vontae Davis, former NFL star, found dead in Miami home at age 35

Davis published a children's book about his life in 2019

Warriors take Rockets' Tari Eason to task for wearing taunting T-shirt on bench

The Warriors blew out the Rockets 133-110.

Royals owner's wife warns team could move to Kansas after ballpark funding proposal voted down

Marny Sherman, the wife of Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman, warned that Missouri could lose both the Royals and Kansas City Chiefs after a stadium funding proposal was voted down.

US economy has Wall Street 'borderline speechless' after blowout March jobs report

The March jobs report was the latest piece of economic data to surprise Wall Street analysts and send stocks rallying.

Welcome to MLB: Padres rookie strikes out on pitch to helmet, which ump got wrong

Graham Pauley has had better at-bats.

Rashee Rice apologizes for 'my part' in crash while injured couple reportedly lawyer up

Rice reportedly owned the Corvette and leased the Lamborghini involved in the crash.

USWNT captain Lindsey Horan and Alex Morgan issue statement after Korbin Albert apologizes for anti-LGBTQ content

Morgan alluded to some "hard conversations" with Albert over the past week.

The A’s are going to Sacramento, a Marlins fire sale & the good, the bad and the Uggla

Jake Mintz & Jordan Shusterman talk about the A’s moving to Sacramento, the Marlins possibly becoming sellers very soon and give their good, bad and Uggla’s from this week in baseball.

A's reach deal to play in Sacramento while waiting for Las Vegas stadium

The A's will head to Las Vegas by way of Sacramento.

What the total solar eclipse could mean for your zodiac sign: An astrologer breaks it down

An astrologist weighs in on the 2024 solar eclipse.

ESPN broadcast tips Dodgers pitches vs. Cardinals during in-game interview with Kiké Hernandez

Hernandez's PitchCom speaker was broadcast for all the world to hear.

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Brice Turang leads first batch of early-season pickups

It's time to boost those fantasy baseball rosters. Andy Behrens offers eight players to consider adding in all leagues.

WrestleMania 40: Predictions for every match on Nights 1 and 2

WWE's biggest event of the year, WrestleMania 40, takes place this weekend at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The two-night extravaganza features 13 matches, with all seven of WWE's major championships on the line. Here's how we predict the event will unfold.

Dallas mayor hints at bringing Chiefs to Cowboys territory after stadium vote fails

This obviously isn't happening.

NFL Draft: Favorite prospects, from no-doubt No. 1 pick to some old-school running backs

As we turn toward the draft, Charles McDonald gives you his 11 favorite prospects in this class, with some marquee names — and others that may someday become one.

The former Clinton adviser and political consultant is watching the presidential race from afar this time around—she moved to Chicago last year.

I have to admit that what first drew me to interviewing the political strategist and tireless Hillary booster Tracy Sefl, now living in Chicago, was her unlikely friendship with Matt Drudge, the founder and chief cook and bottle washer of The Drudge Report . Drudge became famous—or infamous, depending on your political persuasion—in January of 1998 by keeping on the front page of the nation’s newspapers every salacious, shocking detail of Hillary’s husband’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky (including some that weren't so true in the end).

Fast forward to 2008 when Sefl, then working for Mrs. Clinton in her presidential primary race against Barack Obama, acted as Hillary’s liaison to Drudge. At that time, the site drew some 20 million hits per day.

Sefl was born in Hinsdale, Illinois, and grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She now lives in Old Town with her husband, a psychologist who teaches at Northwestern Medical School. The 43-year-old “Democratic communications strategist” tells me over a meeting at a pastry shop on Wells Street—and in subsequent email exchanges–that these days she counsels campaigns, candidates, executives, and authors. “My solo consultancy doesn't have a name, quite purposely so. I do often collaborate with other consultants, including Republicans—within reason—when the work warrants it.”

Most noteworthy on her resume, especially should Hillary become president, Sefl was a senior adviser to the now-defunct superPAC Ready for Hillary. The group dissolved in late April after Hillary announced she was running. Sefl now divides her time between Chicago and DC.

Back to the mysterious Drudge, whose politics lean way right, but who, Sefl told me, seemed “fascinated” by Hillary. Sefl ran with that, and, in 2008, she was routinely dubbed as Hillary’s go-between. New York Times reporter Jim Rutenberg described Sefl as so skilled at this role that her “fingerprints are usually impossible to spot.” (When asked what the campaign thought of Drudge, Sefl says, “The mystery of Matt in 2008 is that he was part antagonist and part fan.”)

In October 2007, Rutenberg reported—and Sefl does not deny—that as then-Senator Obama “prepared to give a major speech on Iraq one morning a few weeks ago, a flashing red-siren alert went up on the Drudge Report Web site. It read, 'Queen of the Quarter: Hillary Crushes Obama in Surprise Fund-Raising Surge’." Later on in that piece, "Mrs. Clinton's aides declined to discuss how the Drudge Report got access to her latest fund-raising figures nearly 20 minutes before the official announcement went to supporters. But it was a prime example of a development that has surprised much of the political world: Mrs. Clinton is learning to play nice with the Drudge Report and the powerful … and conservative-leaning man behind it.”

Sefl first met Drudge, she told me, at a Washington party in 2004 when she was “a war room staffer” doing rapid response and opposition research on both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. “I had so much to work with,” she quipped. She had earlier explained to me that she and Drudge “developed a relationship that was beneficial to us both. He’s a businessman and he knows how to be a businessman.” Drudge was quoted as saying on his now defunct radio show, "I need Hillary Clinton. You don't get it. I need to be part of her world. That's my bank. Like Leo DiCaprio has the environment and Al Gore has the environment and Jimmy Carter has anti-Americanism. I have Hillary."

Sefl was still nurturing the Drudge tie as late as June 7, 2008, the day of Hillary’s concession speech at the National Building Museum in D.C. Sefl invited Drudge to meet her at the event. “He had checked in to see how I was doing. He was in town. We just decided to go to the event together. We tried to hang out in the back.”

(Drudge was not by any means always kind to Hillary during the 2008 battle. As Obama took off, Drudge reported rumors of a Hillary lesbian affair with an aide; Drudge also ran what Politico called “unflattering but attention-grabbing photos of Clinton looking tired and haggard,” and a string of “campaign turmoil” stories.)

Sefl, who graduated from Cornell College, spent more than a decade working for Bill Clinton’s best friend and supporter Terry McAuliffe, who is now governor of Virginia. The relationship started when she went to work for the DNC in 2002 while McAuliffe was chairman. She stuck with McAuliffe, “helping” with his 2007 book What A Party: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals. She then signed on as his press aide in 2007-08 when McAuliffe chaired Hillary's primary campaign, and also assisted with the launch of his electric car company, the subject later of  much controversy . Finally, Sefl helped with McAuliffe’s 2009 bid to become Virginia’s governor. He was unsuccessful that time, but won the next time around. “He wisely chose to eschew national media,” Sefl told me, “so my role was primarily to cheer him on.”

​Her role this time around in helping Hillary for what is presumably her last run for the White House was a hugely important one. Ready for Hillary has provided the former First Lady, senator, and Secretary of State with a four-million-name email list that Politico reporter Annie Karni described as “a data gold mine that will immediately bolster the Democratic front-runner's fundraising and organizing efforts.” If not for that, Karni noted, Hillary would be stuck with “an outdated supporter list from 2008” that, the New York Times ’ Amy Chozick and Patrick Healy reported , “had only about 100,000 active email accounts.”

Sefl says proudly that Ready for Hillary, which started with two volunteers in “someone’s living room,” had, at its height, 35,000 volunteers, 29 staffers, and raised more $15 million from 135,000 donors.

Starting in June, 2014, Sefl served as a “surrogate”—her job was to talk to the media — during Hillary’s tour to promote Hard Choices , her memoir of her years as Secretary of State. “We purchased an RV [a 2011 Winnebago, made in Iowa, she notes proudly], wrapped the back of the bus in the iconic photo of Hillary wearing sunglasses on her Blackberry. Across the photo, we added the text, `DON’T TEXT AND DRIVE.’"

Last May, when Hillary came to Chicago to fundraise, Sefl attended the event at J.B. and M.K. Pritzker's house. "She wowed the crowd that night, including a gentleman next to me who said she would be the first Democratic presidential candidate he'd ever vote for. She took time with everyone, which is always an amazing feat to witness, and I was happy to have a chance to talk with her then, as well.”

I asked Sefl why Hillary, who officially launched via video to intense media hoopla in April, needed a re-launch in June. “She wanted to build upon her digital launch with a traditional rally, complete with a beautiful setting and an excited crowd. ….Her speech on [New York’s] Roosevelt Island reflected some topics that emerged from her first weeks of campaigning. She wanted to have those first weeks to hear from people across the country, and give thought to addressing their concerns.”

Sefl, who can spin with the best of them, responded to my question about how Hillary did in her much-hyped nationally televised sit-down of this campaign last Tuesday in Iowa City, with CNN’s senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. The interview was generally panned, though there were some highlights, Sefl says, such as when she discussed the recent effort to have a woman on currency.

“I want a woman on a bill,” Hillary told Keilar, but on her own bill. Clinton bashed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s plan to have a woman share the $10 bill with the nation’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. She called it “second class.” 

“I really loved her answer [to that],” Sefl wrote me by email. “I would advise her to answer more questions that way.”

To my question about Hillary’s handlers, who used  a rope-line to corral the press during a Fourth of July parade in New Hampshire, Sefl answered, “I’m on Team No More Ropes.”

To my question of whether Hillary should take on Bernie Sanders—she rarely utters the name of the man who is gaining on her in the first caucus state, Iowa, and the first primary state, New Hampshire—Sefl acknowledges the record-breaking crowd of 10,000 Sanders attracted in Madison, and answers, “I would hope all the other campaigns are looking analytically at all of the reasons driving that.” Presumably she means that Hillary’s campaign should take a look as well.

"Who will be her vice president?” I ask. “That will be a parlor game for a very long time. I’m exhausted just thinking about it,” she says.

Could the VP pick be another woman, say Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar? “I think that would be great. …I would love to see two women, but I don’t think it’ll happen this time.”

She adds that she doesn’t think it will be Rahm Emanuel—she describes herself as “an admirer,” having come to know him when he chaired the DCCC while she was at the DNC. “Given that he was just reelected. I hope he remains my mayor.” She even  wrote a Wall Street Journal  piece that ran the day after the election in which she praised Emanuel for raising the minimum wage, working toward universal full-day kindergarten, waiving community college tuition, opening city jobs to DREAMERS, and more.

She has no inside scoop on the possibility that Joe Biden might challenge Hillary in the primary, but says that Joe and Hillary are “pals;” they were colleagues in the Senate, they served in the Obama administration, and seem to be “genuine friends.”

And what should the campaign do about Bill? “I have so much admiration for what he can do,” she answers. “I remember watching him do an event for Rahm last summer. He was marvelous. I believe he’ll respect the campaign strategy and where there’s a place for him, you bet he’ll be there.”

We also talked about the difficulty women face in being dressed and groomed for the day-to-day grind of campaigning. “Men get uniforms—dark suit, white shirt, striped tie. Women get costumes. I couldn’t imagine every time I stepped out of my front door having to be in a constructed state of photo perfection.”

In our first conversation, Sefl told me that she is still decompressing from her DC life and getting accustomed to the fact that Chicagoans think about things other than the 2016 presidential race. “The presidential election is not what dominates people's conversations here. I have to confess that was extremely disconcerting for me at first, but now I'm learning to enjoy it.”

She skipped the re-launch  because “our neighbors lobbied us that the Old Town Art Fair was worth staying in town for, so I chose to DVR the Roosevelt Island event instead. It turns out my neighbors were entirely right.”

As for the wide assortment of scandals surrounding Hillary: “Normal people don’t know or care,” Sefl says. “They will start to pay attention when it’s time to pay attention. Normal people are not paying attention now.”

I asked Sefl—she told me, “with apologies,” that she can’t remember the last time she was on Matt Drudge’s web site—when was the last time she saw the famously elusive Drudge. “We had a lovely lunch together in Miami a few years ago. I hope these days he's traveling the world and having a great time. His site isn't the same now for a lot of reasons, but he certainly built his empire.”

Tags: Politics , Politics & City Life , Writers - Carol Felsenthal

Get Our Newsletters

Chicago magazine newsletters have you covered. Find out where to go, what to eat, where to live, and more. Subscribe for free today!

Recommended

Breaking news.

Keith J. Kelly

Drudge report’s mystery net worth attracts interest amid sale rumors.

• View Author Archive
• Email the Author
• Follow on Twitter
• Get author RSS feed

Contact The Author

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

Ever since rumors began circulating that Matt Drudge might be looking for an investor in his popular Drudge Report website, media watchers have been trying to figure out what the 25-year news aggregation site might be worth.

One Drudge watcher pegs it north of $200 million while others say its closer to $100 million. Any minority stake would be discounted, however, since Drudge is unlikely to surrender any control of the news aggregation site, which links to 50 or more stories a day and usually pushes a political agenda.

The Drudge Report has been grabbing attention this year for boosting Joe Biden instead of Trump, who it pushed in 2016. The apparent change-of-heart has drawn the ire of the President, who recently tweeted that the Drudge Report “sold out,” and suggested that its provocateur founder may have suffered a “nervous breakdown.”

Rumors that Drudge is looking for an investor swept the publishing and financial worlds a few weeks ago, but remain just that. And emails to the reclusive Drudge were not returned.

Following Media Ink’s Sept. 29 column on the rumors, website 24/7 Wall Street wrote that the privately held company that could be worth over $100 million.

But Matthew Lysiak, author of the recently released bio “Drudge Revolution,” thinks the valuation is easily double that figure. “If Axios is really worth $200 million, Drudge has to be worth well north of that.” He pointed out that Axios attracts about 16 million unique visitors per month. “Drudge has that on a very bad month. And his overhead is much lower. ”

“Drudge has himself, a server, and one employee,” said Lysiak. “That’s it. Those are all of his expenses. No office. No staff. Nothing.”

Traffic is important because it determines ad revenue. But it remains unclear how much traffic Drudge really has and calls to the firm handling the site’s ad sales, Granite Cubed, were not returned.

Drudge on his website Thursday claimed that in the last 24 hours he had 27.3 million “visits,” and that over that last month he attracted 767.2 million “visits.” But there is no clarity on whether that is one visitor turning up numerous times per day or a “unique visitor” who would only be counted once a month. Comscore, which tracks unique visitors and other traffic metrics, has not returned numerous calls and emails seeking Drudge’s numbers in recent weeks.

Doug McIntyre, the CEO and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall Street notes that estimates from other tracking services tend to show a wide difference. SimilarWeb pegged Drudge’s August traffic at  63.22 million a month with 11.41 page views per visitor or with 721.3 million page views. SEMrush pegged it much higher at 150.1 million visitors and 7.08 page views per visitor, which translated into 1.063 billion page views.

“Based on the midpoint of traffic estimates, which is about 850 million per month, Drudge Report revenue is approximately $3.4 million a month, or $40.8 million a year,” McIntyre estimated.

But, he says, the Druge Report’s big advantage is its low overhead since most of the 50 or so headlines posted link to stories published by others.

“The entire direct cost to run Drudge Report is about $3 million a year,” McIntyre said.

Share this article: